The History of the Ichthus

by Gregory B. Dill

You see them on the back of
automobiles everywhere. Occasionally, you see them worn on necklaces or
bracelets. I've even seen them as key chains and on hats. Even the
evolutionists show off this symbol with the name "Darwin" aptly inscribed
upon it. I've even seen these mysterious symbols with a small, pointy, dorsal
fin protruding off the top of one of these, resembling a shark.

Those little fish symbols.
Just what are they? What do they mean? What are they suppose to symbolize?

The "ichthus", when
displayed properly should look like either of the four figures displayed below:

The Greek spelling for
ichthus is --
These are the first letters of the Greek words Iesous (Iota),
Christos (Chi),
Theou (Theta),
Uios (Upsilon), and
Sotor (Sigma). The English translation is IXOYE.
The five Greek word stand for the
English words meaning, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior"
or
"Jesus Christ God's
Son Savior".

This symbol was used
primarily amongst Christians of the early church years (1st and 2nd century
A.D.) The symbol was introduced from Alexandria, Egypt; which at the time, was a
very heavily populated seaport. It was the port in which many goods were brought
over from the European continent. Because of this, it was first used by the
peoples of the sea as a symbol of a familiar deity, in this case, Jesus Christ.

The symbol was later used as
a means of identifying or acknowledging a fellow believer in Christ without the
need for any verbal communication being exchanged. Why was this necessary?

During the reign of Emperor
Nero (54 A.D.- 68 A.D.), and throughout the reign of subsequent evil emperors of
the Roman Empire, Christians were commonly persecuted, tortured, and put to
death because of their faith in Christ Jesus. Emperor Nero himself personally
despised Christians. He blamed them for the great fire of A.D. 64 which burned
nearly half of Rome. It was during Nero's persecutions that both Peter and
Paul are thought to have perished.

Spread throughout the
empire, Roman soldiers were stationed everywhere to keep order and to act as
police. This included keeping a watchful eye on the happenings of the daily
lives of the people. Often times, when a soldier spotted a Christian, he would
report it to his superiors who in turn would be ordered to arrest the Christian
and to be brought in for interrogation. The Christian would then be harassed and
tortured in order for them to recant and to submit to the many polytheistic
religions of Rome. In most cases death would be the final end.

In order to prevent this
unnecessary capture and persecution, Christians would often draw an ichthus in
the dirt, mud, sand, or on the walls of caves to let another Christian know that
he too was a fellow believer of Christ and that it was safe to talk about their
faith without the fear of being turned in.

It
wasn't until around 307 A.D. under the reign of Constantine that Christians
were no longer persecuted. During his reign (307 A.D. - 337 A.D.) he declared
Christianity as the official religion of the state which was a direct result of
his own conversion to Christianity, although his perspective of Christianity was
somewhat polluted with pagan ideology. Nevertheless, Christians, in general,
were spared from persecution - at least for the time being. Shortly after the
Constantine dynasty ended, a successor, Julian the Apostate (360 A.D. - 363
A.D.), would later reinstate the pagan religions of Rome as the state religion
and the protection of Christians was nullified.

Today, Christians all
throughout the world have brought back to life this most interesting and
historic symbol. Christians today proudly show off the symbol that their
spiritual ancestors once boldly and courageously showed to fellow believers
centuries ago. So the next time you pass by a vehicle proudly displaying the
ichthus, wave and acknowledge your fellow brother or sister. After all they're
family!

The Greek
Ichthus letters combined as a
wheel (can be seen in six or eight spokes)

The Greek
ichthus letters combined as a wheel

The Greek
ichthus letters, the letters combined as a wheel,
the ichthus sign, and
the Maltese cross

The
above pictures were sent to us by Ernst, a fellow Christian that lives in
the Netherlands. He had the wonderful opportunity to visit the town of
Ephesus
in Turkey.

Ernst says,
"There they told me about the
Ichthus sign. I already knew something about it, and I was looking on
the internet for the complete explanation to use in our local community
brochure. Thank you for explaining it on the internet. So I can use it
more easily. But there is another matter, your site is not complete, in
fact in
Ephesus
many places are marked with another secret symbol, sometimes plain and
sometimes more hidden. It is shown as a old wheel of a coach.

Put all the Greek
letters on top of each other and the sign appears. I X O Y E the E
must be like Σ and the horizontal lines a bit curved.

In
Ephesus
you can find several variants., and if you like it, I will sent you one
of my pictures."

Thank
you so much Ernst for sharing this with us!! It is always great to
learn more about Christian history.

The
above pictures were sent to us by Marty,
who lives in Ontario, New York.
Thank you so much for sharing these pictures with us!!

Marty
says: "I
went to my mom's house for a bon fire
the other night and she picked up a piece of wood and saw a
weird design on it. I looked at
it more closely before she threw it on the fire
and said "wow
that looks like the
Ichthus". I took a
picture of it and I
didn't know what to do with the picture, so
I saw your website and figured you
guys might like it. Enjoy!"